


Casualty

by Inastiel



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Descriptions of Severe Injuries, Gen, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Trauma, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:53:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3163691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inastiel/pseuds/Inastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The USS Enterprise is not the only one to suffer from Khan and Marcus's Vengeance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casualty

**Author's Note:**

> It really bugged me that the only acknowledgement of all the lives destroyed by the USS Vengeance's crash in Star Trek Into Darkness was a single line in Kirk's rechristening speech. It makes it easy to forget that Kirk and his crew weren't the only ones to lose that day.
> 
> Warnings: Graphic description of the injuries and deaths sustained in building collapses, death of children, major injury, gore. I've drawn inspiration from reports and stories of 9/11, and so this story will contain similarities which may be upsetting to some readers.
> 
> The GNPs (gender neutral pronouns) (xe, xem, xyr, xemself) are taken from [this article.](http://io9.com/vancouver-school-board-introduces-gender-neutral-pronou-1592521441) In my headcanon humanity in the future has finally progressed to the point where automatically assuming someone's gender based on their appearance isn't a thing, especially after we come in contact with other sentient species. Instead the GNPs are used until the gender of the person is confirmed. If xe, xem, etc are the preferred pronouns, then they would be continued to be used in reference to that person. (For example, Luke's sibling Ollie prefers GNP, and so he continues to use them in reference to Ollie.)
> 
> My knowledge of disasters such as this, response to these disasters, injuries and medical treatment is very limited and likely inaccurate. I apologize for any mistakes.

The world shakes apart around Luke with a series of echoing booms, and then the sky is filled with a monstrous black starship barreling toward the city.

The screaming starts.

Luke stands frozen, hand clamped around his bag. Dirty black smoke trails after the falling starship. When it smashes into Alcatraz Island and hits the water, he snaps out of the shock and stumbles back. He turns and runs. The monster chases him.

The sound of tortured metal and dying screams fills his ears. His feet hit the pavement hard. It hurts. The debris flying past him hurts.

Something sharp slams into his side and he falls. The building next to him is groaning white and cold and he throws himself around the corner, curling into a ball and covering his ears as a great force rips past his shelter. He closes his eyes and screams with the rest.

Luke’s world becomes unbearable noise as it falls down around him. He closes his eyes tighter as the building collapses. The impacts shudder through the ground and into his bones. Heaviness and darkness crowd on him and he tucks himself against the base of the building even more, praying and crying and screaming and trying to exist. It hurts, oh god, it hurts.

Eerily the noise plummets into distinguishable sounds. Muffled sirens. Screams. The groan of strained metal. Luke coughs, expelling dust from his lungs. He opens his eyes.

It is so very dark.

He pats his jacket for his phone, hoping for some light to examine the area around him, and curses when he finds it smashed. His bag is gone, dropped in his flight. He lifts his arms uncertainly instead. His left hand scrapes against something metal and thin. It bites into the side of his palm angrily. He pulls his arm away with a quiet gasp and continues searching, ignoring the hot drip of blood. The surfaces around him are uneven and hazardous, most likely packed together by their own weight. Luke tries to push against the ceiling but it rumbles and shifts ominously. Dust and debris rain down on his face and he begins to panic.

He slumps back against the base of the building’s wall and wraps his arms around his middle, marveling that the wall is still there at all. He presses his shoes into the rough ground and concentrates on lowering his breath rate. His side is an insistent pain, but the pressing darkness is even worse.

_Ollie’s going to be so angry if I die._ Luke thinks; gaze blank as he stares into the dark. _Xe didn't even want me to be here, after all; said the consultation can wait. Xe was right; I should have stayed – if not for Grayson, then for xem._

Luke’s leg jitters and he shoots to his feet, banging his head on the ceiling. He can’t stay here and just wait for help to arrive. It could be hours, even days before someone finds him. He doesn’t have that time. Ollie and Lana and Richie, _Grayson_ – god, Grayson is still recovering from his aunt’s death and his own injuries. He doesn’t need to lose another family member, adopted or not.

With that in mind he lifts his hands and pushes against the ceiling. He yells, shouting, no, _screaming_ for help. He bangs away a racket like a thunderstorm. The sirens are yelling too.

He carries on shouting for nearly five minutes before he has to stop. His breaths are coming shallower and faster now, and his lungs refuse to expand properly. The dust tunnels into his mouth and down his throat with every inhale. Everything hurts.

_No one is going to find me._

Luke grits his teeth and bangs against the rubble again, beating away the thought. His skin splits and more blood flows. He wonders if his mini first aid kit is still at his hotel. He wonders if the hotel is still standing.

Probably not, he decides, and continues shouting anyway.

 

 

Rescue comes barking a mere hour later. At least he thinks it’s an hour – he can’t see the sun, and it’s too dark for shadows. The lack of vision has sharpened his hearing, however, and he picks up on the sound of dogs and talking. He’s on his feet and yelling again instantly.

“HELP!  I’M DOWN HERE!” He screams, one palm against the ceiling, yearning for the open air and human contact and safety, the other beating mercilessly against the rubble. The dogs bark in response and Luke’s heart soars. They’re coming. He’s okay.

Luke grins around his shouts, and the barking snaps closer and closer. Suddenly it stops, and Luke’s heart stutters.

“I’M HERE!” The call bounces around his confined space and Luke holds his breath, waiting.

“Hello?!” Someone shouts, and Luke laughs.

“I’m down here!” He shouts back, crowding against the ceiling. The rubble shifts and more dust rain down. “Be careful, it’s unstable!”

“We’re going to get you out!” He hears. Luke grins against the concrete, ignoring the harsh cold taste of dust settling behind his teeth.

“Okay!” Luke breathes, heart thundering. “Okay.”

 

 

He emerges into the sun, blinking wide-eyed and shaking. A firefighter and a civilian help him to the surface and sit him down. He stares. The city is broken. The sky is smudged black.

“Sir? Sir!” Luke comes back and focuses on the masked person in front of him. Worry tightens the dust-filled lines on xyr face.

“I’m fine, I’m okay.” Luke says automatically. The person raises an eyebrow and looks at Luke’s hand. Luke lifts it and frowns at the messy cut.

“We should clean that.” Xe says, reaching for a basic first aid bag. It’s already depleted. “What’s your name? I’m Harley.”

“Luke.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Luke hums in answer and stares at the smoking ruins. Silhouetted figures climb over the rubble, working to contain fires and move others to safety.

Harley cleans the cut. Xyr actions are quick and efficient, and Luke wonders how many others Harley will have to treat today. Harley wraps it up and gives Luke a strained smile.

“If you’re hurt more, you’ll need to be moved on to one of the triage tents where you can be treated further. If not, I suggest getting out of the area and to a safe place.”

Luke looks at the crumpled city before him. “I want to help.”

Harley nods, understanding. “I suggest getting a mask from over there then. It’s not as good as a respirator, but they’ve all been given out. At least a mask will provide a little protection.” Xe looks down at xyr hands. “Get some gloves too.”

Luke smiles crookedly. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Be safe.”

Luke stands and retrieves a mask and several pairs of gloves before being directed to the very building he was rescued from. The rubble is full of twisted metal and broken livelihoods, so Luke steps lightly. People are dying here, have died here, will die here. The first person he finds is pinned, but alive. Luke and a few others manage to free xem and move them to the nearest paramedic. Luke moves closer to the ravaged starship. He finds one person’s hand, limp and mangled. When he finds the rest of the Orion’s body he has to turn away and throw up what little he had for lunch. His side burns. His tears mix with the blood on the ground, the blood that does not belong there in the dirt. This is not right.

Luke finds several more people, one who is impaled on a warped wire. He almost throws up again, and trembles, but he holds on a little longer and calls for help. As he waits his arms shake in fine tremors. His hands and shoulders shake too. He breaks a little more.

Each victim stays with Luke as he carries on. A human, no more than twenty, shattered under a fallen wall. A parent and child curled around each other, still in death, blood and body fluids and organs that shouldn’t be seen painting their surroundings and each other. He finds various aliens, some Luke hasn’t a name for, and all killed here, on Earth, an alien planet. And worst, the unidentifiable and lonely remains. The ones of people which are found but will never be named. Hands and toes and torsos and heads, separated and crushed. Luke cries.

The air is thick and heavy. The mask helps Luke as he continues in a haze, but his eyes still burn and the air still scrapes inside of him. When he moves his side hurts, and when he finally reaches back to understand why his gloved fingers come back smeared red. Something that does not belong in his flesh is burrowed in and Luke wonders why he didn’t remember it before, when Harley asked him if he had any injuries.

 Luke shakes the thoughts away, tucks his stained fingers under his arms, and stumbles forward, searching again. He can wait. People are still out there, people who need to be found.

The starship responsible for the devastation rears up before Luke. It is hollow and gutted and crumbling, like the people crushed under its horrifying descent. Luke closes his eyes as he remembers it smashing into Alcatraz Island, essentially pulverizing everyone on the island.

At least their death was quick.

Luke stumbles across a dead child tangled in the ruins, still clinging to xyr toy. It strikes Luke how similar xe looks to Grayson after the accident – sprawled limbs, frail, cold. Luke closes Grays- the child’s eyes, hands shaking as he scoops xem up from the ruins. He carries xem out from under the monstrous starship’s shadow and lays xem down in the sunshine.

He cries behind his mask and settles the teddy in the child’s still arms. One eye is missing, and Luke thinks the other is full of sadness. The fur is rough with dust and matted with its owner’s blood. Luke hopes that if there’s an afterlife the child has xyr teddy.

He rests for a moment, eyes closed, paying respects to the dead, and then pulls himself wearily to his feet. He ignores the trembling.

 

 

The closer he gets to starship the less people he finds alive, or, indeed, intact. He stays out of the buildings at the firefighters’ request until they are sure it is safe enough for others to enter. He instead combs the smoking streets, carefully ignoring the cold shadow of the starship. The smoke seems so much thicker under its belly. Death sings on the wind.

 

 

He finds xem in the crumpled carcass of a car, no more than ten and crying.

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” He says, breathing out. The weight in his chest lightens. A child is alive, even this far in. “Can you come out of there?”

The child stares at him with wide brown eyes, pinned against the seats and metal. Xyr face is etched in blood and snot and grief, but xe is conscious and aware and alive, _alive._

“My name’s Luke. What are you called?” He asks, trying a different direction.

“Renee.” Xe says quietly. Luke smiles and waves slightly.

“It’s good to meet you, Renee.” He tells xem, moving inside the car carefully. He pats against the seat pinning xem down. “If I hold this up for a bit, do you think you could squeeze through?”

Renee nods and creeps forward. Luke braces his back against the mangled seat and pushes it up. The child just manages to fit past. Luke waits until xe is out of the way before letting it down, grunting as it aggravates the wound in his side.

_Maybe I should get that seen too._

Luke turns to Renee to check on xem and sighs in relief. The extent of xyr injuries seems to be only a few cuts and bruises. When he looks down he sees one small hand clinging to his tattered jacket. Renee looks up at him with trusting eyes.

“Do you have any family close by?” He asks gently.

“Mom and Uncle Jay.” Xe whispers. Luke opens his mouth to ask where xe last saw them when he hears a shout.

“We’ve got another one!” A volunteer crouched off to the left of the car yells, waving at them. Luke waves back and jogs over with Renee. He stops short, out of sight of the victim.

“Is it…okay?” He asks the volunteer, glancing at Renee. The Orion follows his gaze and then looks to the concealed person.

“It should be alright.” Xe says uncertainly. Luke steps around the buckled car door. The person is mostly intact, save for a hurt leg and unconsciousness. Renee lets out a small shriek upon seeing xem.

“Aunt Jay!” Xe drops down next to xyr injured relative, clinging to xyr right hand. Luke feels his chest swell at the sight. At least the child’s aunt is still alive.

“We should get a stretcher over here.” Luke tells the other volunteer, gazing at the child and xyr aunt sympathetically. “Do you have first aid training?”

“Yes. How about you take the kid and ask for a stretcher?” The volunteer stands and puts a hand gently on Luke’s shoulder. “You look like you need a break.”

Luke huffs out a laugh. “No time for that.”

“True.” The volunteer’s mouth twists in a wry smile.

Renee looks up at Luke. “I want to stay with her.”

“Are you sure?”

Renee’s chin juts out stubbornly. “I’m sure.”

“Alright.” Luke meets the volunteer’s gaze. “Good luck.”

The volunteer nods and Luke leaves, making his way back to the triage tents slowly. When he reaches it he tells the nearest person about the volunteer and xyr patient and slumps to the ground, exhausted. Someone presses a bottle of water into his hand and a protein bar. Luke eats mechanically. The city is still full of death, and people still work to fight it back. Luke hears chatter about terrorists and corrupt Starfleet officials and the USS Enterprise. When he gazes up at the clouds Luke imagines the fair ship hovering above them.

_Thank god it didn’t fall too._ Luke thinks, and wonders how many people died on the black starship when it crashed.

Someone kneels in front of him, and Luke stares at the dirty face in confusion for a long moment. Then he snaps back to his senses.

“Marie.” He gasps out. His hand lifts and grasps his co-worker’s shoulder tightly, seeking reassurance that she is really there, really alive.

“It’s me.” She holds onto his wrist and a shaky smile forms. “I’m glad you’re alive, Luke.”

Luke closes his eyes and grins.

 

 

Luke falls asleep dirty and shattered and wakes up in the hospital, clean and mostly unbroken.

“You should have told someone you were hurt.” He hears. A doctor stands over his bed, hazel eyes sorrowful. Luke squints at xem. Xe look like xe haven’t slept in weeks.

“Hi?”

A short laugh escapes the doctor. “I’m Doctor McCoy.”  The name sounds vaguely familiar, but Luke is more concerned about his surroundings.

“I’m Luke. Where am I?”

“You’re in Starfleet’s main hospital. We’ve opened it to anyone hurt in the crash.” Xe says in a thick southern accent, and a shadow crosses xyr face at the words.

“Oh.” Luke whispers. He wonders if the people he found survived.

“You’re lucky your friend brought you in here. Any longer and you would have gotten a nasty infection. Next time you have a two inch piece of metal in your side you tell someone right away, alright?”

“So that’s what it was.” Luke murmurs, for the first time becoming aware of the bandages hugging his abdomen and chest. McCoy continues to stare at him expectantly, and Luke realizes xe wants an answer.

“There were too many. Too many hurt.” He explains, looking out the window. The starship is still there, and he turns away, feeling sick.

McCoy is staring at the starship too, mouth a tight thin line. There is anger in xyr eyes at the sight, more anger than Luke expected. Xyr shoulders are shaking.

“Did you lose someone?” Luke asks quietly. McCoy’s gaze breaks away from the starship and xe looks down at xyr tablet.

“Something like that. He…he’s in a coma.”

“I’m sorry.” Luke tells xem, and he is. McCoy gives him a fragile nod and straightens.

“You’ll need to get follow up treatments for your lungs – you inhaled some toxins and smoke, even with the mask, and the last thing you need is to develop a respiratory illness later down the line.” Xe says, and the firm tone suddenly clicks everything into place in Luke’s head.

“You’re Doctor Leonard McCoy, aren’t you? You were on the Enterprise.” Luke remembers seeing the doctor on the news after the Nero Incident. “You performed the surgery that saved Captain Pike. My little sister idolizes you.”

McCoy snorts and begins entering medical information into the screen next to them. “I just patched the man back together. I wasn’t the one who rescued him.”

“You stopped him from dying on the way home. The follow up is just as important, and sometimes harder, than the actual incident. Don’t play down what you did.” Luke says, thinking of Grayson. His little brother was a mess right after the shuttle crash, yes, but the following month and a half has been at times even harder for all of them.

McCoy stares at him for a long moment, hand pausing above his screen. “I appreciate that.”

Luke gives the doctor a tired smile. “Is there a phone I can use?” He asks. McCoy purses his lips.

“The hospital lines might still be overwhelmed, but you can use mine.” He passes it to Luke. The home screen is a picture of McCoy with a younger, golden-haired person. Luke recognizes him as Captain Kirk. Huh.

“Is it him?” He asks quietly, referring to the doctor’s lost ‘someone.’ McCoy stares at the picture and a soft sigh escapes from between his lips.

“Yes.”

Luke’s heart aches for the doctor. “I almost lost my brother Grayson six weeks ago.” He opens the phone’s calling app, surprised by the touch screen. It seems old fashioned, but it somehow fits McCoy. “We thought he’d die at first. It was scary. He didn’t move.”

McCoy’s breath hitches.

“The doctors tried everything they knew, and none of it worked. He stayed in a coma and we stayed scared. Eventually our sister Lana decided to simply tell him to wake up.”

Luke’s hands tremble. So do McCoy’s.

“It didn’t work of course, but it gave me an idea. I started telling him why he should wake up. His archery lesson on Friday. His dog, his future career in Starfleet – he always wanted to go into space, it was his dream – his friends. His family. Us.

It seemed stupid at first, talking to him when he was asleep, and yet he opened his eyes just over a week later. He’d heard us. He fought to come back to us.” Luke meets McCoy’s grieving gaze. “I don’t know Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, but he seems like a fighter, especially for his family, blood related or not. I don’t think he will have given up yet. Don’t give up on him.”

McCoy is silent for so long that Luke begins to worry that he’s crossed a line. Suddenly he stands.

“I have to go see someone.” He says, voice thick, and leaves. Luke watches him go with a sad smile and then turns back to the phone. He’ll have to track McCoy down and return it afterwards, but until then, he has a call to make.

The phone rings once, twice, and then a breathless ‘hello’ fills the line.

“Grayson, it’s me. I’m okay.”

A choked sob. “Luke!”

 

 

Luke finds McCoy on a higher floor later, reading to his captain and friend. It was hard to get past the security guards patrolling the upper floors, ‘Starfleet personnel only’, he was told, but he managed to convince them to let him through after showing them the phone and getting a good word from a Lieutenant Uhura. Xe doesn’t offer to take the phone for him but gestures for him to continue.

The Lieutenant does follow him up, making sure he actually returns the phone, but he doesn’t mind. He’s glad the doctor has friends that care about him.

Uhura enters first. Luke hears low voices, and then McCoy appears at the door alone, holding a tablet. His shoulders and hands are steady.

“Thanks for your help.” Luke says, and hands him the phone.

“Did you get a hold of your family?” McCoy asks, tucking the phone away.

“I did.”

McCoy gives him a small smile. “Thank you, for before.” He says, glancing back into the room. Luke can just see the end of the bed inside.

“I meant it. You’re a good person, McCoy. I hope everything turns out alright for you both.”

McCoy nods, and when he returns to Kirk’s bedside, his step is lighter.

Luke smiles and goes to find his own family.

**Author's Note:**

> Luke switches to he/him/his pronouns with McCoy and Kirk once he realizes who exactly they are. He knows their preferred pronouns from news reports and interviews after the Nero Incident.
> 
> If you are wondering why McCoy isn't with Kirk, my headcanon is that once Kirk is stabilized McCoy goes to help with all the injuries coming in from the disaster. I can imagine it would be a difficult task for hospitals in the area to deal with the mass casualty and so all doctors, or indeed anyone with first aid and medical training, would be needed in some way to help minimize deaths, especially at first. I imagine McCoy continues to alternate between checking on Kirk and helping treat and check on patients in the hospital until either his medical license is suspended (for using an untested serum derived from a most likely unwilling or unconscious donor and then using it to _bring someone back from the dead ___\- it's amazing he was even allowed to treat Kirk for as long as he was) or until he is no longer needed. Or until one of the crew drag him out of there and get him to rest.
> 
> Also, Luke doesn't know Pike is dead when he talks to McCoy about him.  
> 


End file.
